Hello! Welcome to this week’s edition of The Connected Church News, where we bring you the Top 5 Digital and Social Media News each week for Leaders of Nonprofits, Churches, Ministries and Faith-driven Entrepreneurs.

We know you are busy. And we know that most of you don’t have the time to search the big world wide web for the current news that is relevant to you.

That is why each week we bring you the Top 5 Digital and Social Media News that you need to know for this week and present it to you in a short video format.

This week we look at news items related to Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

📰 Top 5 Digital & Social Media News

Our first big news of this week is from YouTube. YouTube releases ‘Video Chapters’ feature to everyone. They have been testing this for a while now, and now they’ve made it available to everyone. If you’re wondering what ‘Video Chapters’ is: it’s very simple – on your YouTube video, your audience can go and select a part of the video based on each topic or a ‘chapter’ that you specify. For example, if you have a 10 minute video and you talk about 4 different points, people can actually go to the second point or the first point based on just scrolling over the video. So it can be very useful for your audience and it can also be useful for you to convey longer messages. It can help you create chapters based on sermon outline, you can create chapters based on Bible verses.

There’s is a lot of application for teaching ministries and churches. Do check it out. YouTube has made it very easy. You don’t have to do any technical work. All you have to do is upload the video and in the description, just put the timestamp – in what time which topic is appearing. You just have to start the time-stamping in a particular way. You just have to start with 0:00. When you do that, YouTube will know that that is the ‘chapter’ marking. After that, the minimum requirement is you need 3 chapters and each chapter has to be 10 seconds long. That’s all. Once you have it, boom, you can start using the feature. So it seems like a great new feature. Go check it out.

Our next news is from Instagram. And this is about monetizing your content on Instagram. If you are a creator on Instagram and you like to make some money, just like how people make money on YouTube, then this might be of interest to you.

First is, Instagram gives you the ability to add badges when you go live. So you can add a badge and people can purchase that badge. Whoever purchases that badge gets a special mention and a special status in the comments. That is one. The next thing is, IGTV ads. Ads are coming to IGTV. When you release an IGTV video, now you can monetize it with advertising. People who open the video will see ads and that will become a monetization option for the creators. IGTV is going a lot in the YouTube direction.

Still a long way to go, but it’s a different platform, a different format, even the ads are vertical 15-second ads. So it’ll be interesting to see how this takes off.

🗞️ News #3 – Twitter now allows you to schedule Tweets from the desktop app

Our next news is from Twitter. And it’s a big one, a much-awaited feature, which allows you to ‘schedule’ a Tweet on Twitter’s website, web app. Now you can type a Tweet and if you don’t have time to send it immediately, you can schedule it for the future, as long as it is within the next 18 months.

This is a feature that many people have been waiting for, and now you can start using it. You can also ‘save’ your draft and you can also look at all the saved drafts on the web app. You don’t have to use a third party app. You can do it straight out of Twitter. This could be useful to your social media team, so pass this news on to them and ask them to check it out.

Our next news item is about Facebook. We’ve got two news items. One is about Facebook’s announcement last week that they will start verifying the profiles of people who release posts that go viral. If you have a potential to have a high-reach post, then you will need additional verification. And if you don’t fulfil the verification, the announcement is that “your post’s viral ability, the distribution, will be reduced” and it will just not have that kind of a viral effect. So this is being rolled out.

The second interesting announcement last week is about Facebook’s digital wallet called Libra. If you have been following our news for a while, you know that we made the Libra announcement a while ago, which is Facebook’s digital currency and wallet. Now they have renamed it and rebranded it as Novi. Novi comes from a Latin word, Facebook says, which is ‘novus’ + ‘via’ which is ‘new way’. So it’s going to be a new way for Facebook and hopefully a new way for the digital world.

Earlier, the announcement about Facebook Shops and now the announcement about a wallet – shops and wallet. It’s all going to be very interesting to see how Facebook plays this eCommerce and digital commerce game. Do watch out pretty closely.

🗞️ News #5 – TikTok’s new #LearnOnTikTok program to help encourage education during lockdown

Our final user this week is from TikTok. TikTok announced a new program called #LearnOnTikTok hashtag, which is an initiative by TikTok to help people learn or be educated during this COVID season. People are locked down, there is lockdown in many parts of the world or they have restricted movements. And TikTok says “this is a good time for you to learn something new” and they want you to learn it on TikTok platform.

The reason I brought this news item to you is for you to take note that TikTok is not just about dancing, right? It’s about learning. And even they realize that ,and they want to push education and learning. So you as a ministry, or a nonprofit, or a teaching church, or anything where you are interested in an educational form of content, then do check out TikTok. It’s fast changing and it’s becoming a different platform. Check it out.

That’s all we have for you this week. Thank you for spending your time with us.

Have a wonderful week!

Do leave your comments, questions, feedback, and reviews. You can also email me: podcast@natchilazarus.com

We will bring you a fresh set of the latest Social Media news for you next week.

]]>https://www.natchilazarus.com/weekly-digital-social-media-news-05-jun-2020-e069/feed/02816Creating content for a God-given purposehttps://www.natchilazarus.com/creating-content-for-a-god-given-purpose/ https://www.natchilazarus.com/creating-content-for-a-god-given-purpose/#respondThu, 04 Jun 2020 12:27:23 +0000https://www.natchilazarus.com/?p=2812Creating content for a God-given purpose. Listen to Natchi Lazarus as he helps you answer this important question.

Hi. In the 4th chapter of my book, The Connected Church, I talk about content that will help you fulfil your purpose. When we talk about content marketing in the social media and the digital media world, most of the time it’s like… what is trending? what do people like? what is going to work on social media? what kind of content makes you look good? and so on.

Does your content help you fulfil your purpose?

But one of the most important things about content is: does it help you fulfil your purpose? In business terms that would be, does it help you achieve your objectives? So people say, “Okay, list down your objectives and make sure you create content that will help you achieve your objectives”.

It is about God-given purposes?

But in the Christian context, in the church context, you’ve got to take it a little further and use the word purpose. Because we are here for a purpose. God has called us for a purpose. Your church exists for a purpose. Your ministry exists for a purpose. We are all driven by a purpose that is beyond our lives, right? It’s something that comes from God himself. He has called each of us to do something, to serve people in a particular way. So when you think of your content marketing, keep THAT purpose in mind. Not just organizational objectives, but God’s purposes. What has God called you to do? What does God want you to do?

It is easy to get distracted.

Because you could get distracted with so many things. You start creating TikTok videos because TikTok is the big thing. You start creating Instagram stuff because Instagram is the coolest thing. Or you do something on Facebook because a consultant like me comes and tells you, “Use Facebook!”. While you have to do all of that (and I recommend you to all of that) I also recommend that you don’t do anything unless until you’re sure.

Stay focussed on your God-given purpose.

No matter who tells you, whether it’s me or anybody else, no matter who tells you, unless you’re a 100% sure that this is aligned with your God-given purpose, DON’T DO IT. I know ministries that just focus on one channel because that helps them fulfil the purpose that God has called them to do. A guy does only something on WhatsApp. I know a person who does only YouTube videos because their purpose is to do something and that channel and that content helps them accomplish that purpose. And that’s it.

That’s all that matters. That you are accomplishing your God-given purpose through a particular channel and a content strategy. So think about that. Align everything with your God-given purpose. All right, I’ll see you next week with another thought until then, stay connected. Stay blessed. God bless you. Bye.

]]>https://www.natchilazarus.com/creating-content-for-a-god-given-purpose/feed/02812[Question] Should you use Instagram DMs as a Chat Support tool?https://www.natchilazarus.com/ask-natchi-02-jun-20-e037-should-you-use-instagram-dms-as-a-chat-support-tool/ https://www.natchilazarus.com/ask-natchi-02-jun-20-e037-should-you-use-instagram-dms-as-a-chat-support-tool/#respondTue, 02 Jun 2020 11:49:45 +0000https://www.natchilazarus.com/?p=2806Should you use Instagram DMs as a Chat Support tool? Listen to Natchi Lazarus as he helps you answer this important question.

Hello there, welcome to the #AskNatchi show. Today, we have a good question about using Instagram as a customer support tool. The nonprofit that asked us this question is having a lot of followers on Instagram and they want to know whether they should continue all the conversations they’re having with their followers on DMs inside Instagram, or should they take them to a CRM tool or somewhere where they can actually give them support like they regularly do, a regular customer support.

Now, this is a great question because it’s important for you to have clarity about how you are serving your Instagram audience. Because it’s one of the fastest growing social media tools, so having clarity about the workflow in the long term is very important. Let me answer this question.

You can go either way. But first let me talk to you about having the conversation outside Instagram. What you need to stay very clear about is: how are you going to transition this conversation? People have started a conversation inside Instagram with you, you are talking to them, you or your representatives are talking to them, giving them more information, serving them inside Instagram.

Now how are you going to get that to move outside Instagram? Are you going to give them a link? Or how are you going to do that? And that process needs to be as smooth as possible. Make sure that it is not a very complicated, make sure it doesn’t make people feel so uneasy that they will stop the conversation because it’s all a matter of comfort and convenience for the audience. You have to meet them at the point of need. The user experience has to be very, very smooth.

Here’s my thought. If possible, try NOT to move them outside Instagram. Because people have started that conversation on a particular platform or an app for a reason, right? Because they feel comfortable. They feel good dealing with you on that platform. They trust the conversation levels. They have seen your content there and they’re used to using that platform.

There are two things always involved in a conversation. One is the comfort level of the platform. Try to keep that in mind. And the other thing is whether this whole disruption will make you lose that conversation. Be very conscious of these two factors.

I would recommend that you keep them on Instagram as much as possible. You may ask, ‘But Natchi, how do we track it? What about CRM?”. See, if you want something on a very simple level, you can actually use… if you go to your Facebook page… I’m sure your Facebook pages and your Instagram account are connected… if you go to your Facebook page, there is something called ‘Inbox’.

That inbox feature is becoming better and better. Facebook now gives you tools like labelling, notes, etc. If you go on Facebook page as a business, if you have business users, all of them can access that inbox on your Facebook page, and they can label each conversation on Instagram. Your Instagram conversation also appear on that inbox, because there’s this integration of both Facebook page conversations and Instagram conversations.

Instagram business conversations are going to appear inside that inbox and all your employees can access that. They can label it. For example: you can say ‘New conversation’ or if somebody is a ‘Supporter’ or a ‘Donor’, you can label them. You can also add notes. So inbox gives you the ability to add notes for each conversation. That notes will be visible only to the support team in your organization. These are all available within Facebook for free.

But if you’re okay with spending and getting some tools, there are CRM tools which helps you keep the conversation on Instagram, but still give great customer support, because in your backend you will use those tools to continue that conversation. I’ll give you some of the links on the show notes where you can go and check out those tools that helps you add a CRM component to your Instagram. But try to keep that conversation within Instagram itself.

Just before I close, I want to tell you recently Facebook announced that you can start Facebook Messenger Rooms from Instagram DM, which means you can actually have a video call with your customers on your Instagram DM, without leaving Instagram DM. You just have a chat, and then in the chat you just select the direct message and then click on video, click on ‘create rooms’ and you can have that conversation with your customer in the messenger rooms. And that’s a seamless experience provided by Facebook itself. So things like that are going to happen. The face of customer support is completely changing, so you adapt your ministry accordingly. That would be my input.

I hope that was useful. I hope this was useful to even others who are thinking of using Instagram for your customer support, or your donor support, or your nonprofit ministry support team, etc. All right. God bless you.

If you have any other questions related to digital, social media, let me know. I’ll be happy to answer your questions. God bless you. I’ll see you next week with another answer to another question. Have a good day. Stay connected. Stay blessed. Stay safe. Bye.

Hello! Welcome to this week’s edition of The Connected Church News, where we bring you the Top 5 Digital and Social Media News each week for Leaders of Nonprofits, Churches, Ministries and Faith-driven Entrepreneurs.

We know you are busy. And we know that most of you don’t have the time to search the big world wide web for the current news that is relevant to you.

That is why each week we bring you the Top 5 Digital and Social Media News that you need to know for this week and present it to you in a short video format.

This week we look at news items related to Facebook, Twitter, Google, Instagram, and Messenger.

📰 Top 5 Digital & Social Media News

Our first big news of this week is from Facebook. Last week, Facebook announced the launch of Facebook Shops, which is an online store that people can access on both Facebook and Instagram. Once you set it up on Facebook, people can access on multiple channels that belong to Facebook.

This interoperability is what makes it very interesting. It’s very similar to Amazon in the sense that people can finish a purchase right inside the app, you can make a payment and everything within the app as you go along. But what makes it interesting is the combination of channels. Facebook says that when somebody looks at a product and they have a question, they can message the organization with their question on Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. They are bringing in Instagram and WhatsApp into the equation, which makes it very, very interesting.

Facebook says eventually in the future, people will be able to even order on a chat on Instagram and WhatsApp. They can order the products that are listed on your Facebook Shop. If you are a ministry or a nonprofit that has products that you would like to take to people, then definitely check out this new product launch.

🗞️ News #2 – Twitter tests a new setting that lets you choose who can reply to your Tweets

Our next news is from Twitter. Last week, Twitter announced in their blog that they are testing a new setting, which will let you choose who can reply to your Tweet and join your conversation. Basically Twitter will give you 3 options. You can select whether everyone can reply to a tweet, or people you follow, or only people that you mentioned.

This is a very interesting set of options considering Twitter is a public platform. Right now they are rolling it out to a few users based on invitation. I got an invitation last week to test this feature and it has been very interesting. Some of the use cases are going to apply to ministries and nonprofits as well. So definitely check out this new feature and see if you are in the testing group. If not very soon, it should be live.

🗞️ News #3 – Instagram releases new updates and guidelines for including music in videos

Our next news is from Instagram. This could be a big news for some of the ministries listening to me who use music in your ‘Live’ video and other video content. Instagram has released new updates and guidelines on how to use music in videos, not just on Instagram, but also on Facebook Live. I know ministries have music in the form of say, worship or other contexts.

This is something that is important for you to check out and make sure that you are in alignment with their policies. Because the article also says that you will soon start receiving notifications that ‘if your audio is not in line with the licensing agreements or these guidelines, then it might be removed’. And that notification will actually appear in your newsfeed or in your notifications area as you upload content or when you go Live. So it’s important for you to understand these guidelines, do check it out.

🗞️ News #4 – Google released tips and tools on how to optimize Google Ads during this covid season

Our next news is from Google. Last week, Google released an article that I wanted to bring to your notice, which has a lot of tips about how to optimize your Google Ads specifically for this Covid-19 season. Because people’s mindsets have changed because of the lockdown. The way they interact online has changed.

Google lists these resources and gives you tips on using tools like ‘Smart bidding’ or a ‘recommendations’ page, or how to select a keyword and so on. In fact, at the end of the article, you would see one resource page that gives you a lot more information about how you can optimize your Google Ads.

I know there are many ministries and nonprofits that use Google Ads, especially through Google Grants and other provisions. So if you would like to be more effective during this season with your Google Ads, then I highly recommend that you check out this article. I will link to it in the show notes.

Our final news of this week is about Messenger. We’ve got two interesting news items about Messenger. The first is Facebook brings back Polls option to Messenger. Earlier it was there and then they removed it to streamline it. But now because of public demand, they brought back polling. You can ask questions within Messenger and people can respond to it. That is one.

The second is even more interesting: it is an integration between Instagram and Messenger. Now, within your Instagram DM, you can open a Messenger Room. For example: let’s say you’re chatting with a few people on Instagram, which has become one of the preferred ways of communication. And then you can click on the video button and then you’ll see an option to ‘open a Messenger Room’, which has capacity to take 50 people. Then you can select some of your contacts in Instagram’s direct messaging, and then you can all go over to the Messenger app to have that video call.

The interesting thing is, it will give you a link and you can even share it with people outside, who don’t even have a Facebook account, to join that call. Do check it out. Seems like a very interesting feature that could have many applications from a nonprofit and a ministry perspective.

That’s all we have for you this week. Thank you for spending your time with us.

Have a wonderful week!

Do leave your comments, questions, feedback, and reviews. You can also email me: podcast@natchilazarus.com

We will bring you a fresh set of the latest Social Media news for you next week.

]]>https://www.natchilazarus.com/weekly-digital-social-media-news-29-may-2020-e068/feed/02797Social Media Ministry for the Next Generationhttps://www.natchilazarus.com/socialmedia-ministry-for-next-generation/ https://www.natchilazarus.com/socialmedia-ministry-for-next-generation/#respondThu, 28 May 2020 14:04:18 +0000https://www.natchilazarus.com/?p=2794Social Media Ministry for the Next Generation. Listen to Natchi Lazarus as he helps you answer this important question.

Hello and welcome. Today I want to talk to you about social media’s influence on the next generation. In chapter 12 of my book I touch upon future trends that you need to know as a leader of a nonprofit or a ministry. And one of the things I talk about is the ‘Quiet’ influence of social media on the next generation. Some of the influence is good. Some of the influence is not very good.

And the thing about social media influence is it’s quiet. What do I mean by quiet? Sometimes when there is an influence, it’s out and loud. You know that kind of influence is happening, especially to your children. But with social media, the influence is happening in a very quiet way, because they are wearing headphones, and they’re looking at their phone and the phone-related influence is very personal, because you are not in between. When you’re going on the road, if your child or your teenager is looking at a poster, you can see it. It’s a loud influence, right? Or if they’re hanging out with friends and you stand there and watch what’s happening, there it’s an open influence.

You are able to see what’s going on and how they’re being influenced. But with the social media and the digital world, the influence is very quiet. It’s very subtle. Because they’re just looking at their phone, they’re putting their headphones on, you can’t even hear what’s happening in the headphone because it’s personal. And they are being influenced in a big way without you being aware or cognizant of it. So this is a trend that you need to be fully aware of even as a leader of a nonprofit or a ministry because I’m sure some your audience are full of young people and they are being influenced.

Not just your family, but also your congregation and your audience are being influenced quietly on social media. It’s an important thing that we need to understand and think about ways in which as a ministry, as a Christian nonprofit, what are you going to do about it to make that influence better?

If there’s good influence, that’s great. If people are listening to good stuff, that’s awesome. But if they’re not, then as a church, it’s important for us to bring the kingdom of God onto the digital space. So you as a ministry need to think about it and make plans for it, and make sure that we are being a good influence in the society, especially for our next generation.

Hello! Welcome to this week’s edition of The Connected Church News, where we bring you the Top 5 Digital and Social Media News each week for Leaders of Nonprofits, Churches, Ministries and Faith-driven Entrepreneurs.

We know you are busy. And we know that most of you don’t have the time to search the big world wide web for the current news that is relevant to you.

That is why each week we bring you the Top 5 Digital and Social Media News that you need to know for this week and present it to you in a short video format.

This week we look at news items related to LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram

📰 Top 5 Digital & Social Media News

Our first big news is from Instagram. Last week, Instagram announced that you can now save your ‘Instagram Live’ sessions to your IGTV channel, right after you finish your Live session. This can save a lot of time if you are a regular user of Instagram Live, because I know many ministries do a Live session and then they have to download it, and then they have to re-upload it to IGTV, and to other places.

This will save time because you can directly save it to IGTV. This not only saves time, but it also opens up new workflows – while saving to IGTV, you can select your ‘Preview’ option and save that footage on your newsfeed. It can appear on your IG newsfeed. And of course, it can also appear on your IG Stories directly. So from one content, you can now have your presence on all of the other areas of Instagram.

I highly recommend you check out this new feature if you plan to use Instagram in the days to come (which you should, considering Instagram is one of the fastest growing channels out there in the social media space).

Our next news is from Facebook. Last week, Facebook announced that they are expanding their Brand Safety Controls, which gives advertisers better control over where their ads appear within in-stream placements. There are different placement options within Facebook. And one of them is in-stream placements. This announcement is about giving better control for that particular type of placement.

Now Facebook gives you control like you can ‘white list publishers’, ‘content white list’ and you can ‘exclude live streams’, etc. All of these options and tools are available, in the ‘Brand Safety Control Interface’, which you can find in business manager. There’s also an overview page which will show all your ad accounts and the status of their brand safety controls. Each ad account’s status is also displayed in that page.

🗞️ News #3 – LinkedIn launches its own new native ‘Polls’ option

Our next news is from LinkedIn. LinkedIn has now officially released its own native ‘Polls’ option. Polls are a very good way of collecting feedback from your social media audience, and it’s also a great tool to increase engagement in your channel. So, if you are a nonprofit or a ministry that uses polls regularly on other channels and if your audience are also on LinkedIn, then this might be a tool that you definitely want to check out. Because it’s one thing to have polls in other channels like Instagram and Facebook, but it’s a whole new thing when it happens on LinkedIn, because LinkedIn is a professional platform, and the audience who are going to respond to your poll are people who actually work in that space.

LinkedIn people are of a very different profile than what you would find, they are people with a different mindset than what you would find in other channels. Do check this out. I think it’s a great way for you to increase engagement and also get valuable feedback from your audience.

Our next news is about TikTok. We have two news items about TikTok this week. One is the release of a Youth Portal, which is a space where TikTok wants to educate teens and their parents about internet safety, and also the tools and controls that they have within TikTok.

If you are in a ministry that ministers to teens or kids in that age group, then this is something you might want to check out from a digital ministry perspective. The other big news is: Disney’s Streaming Head, Kevin Mayer has joined TikTok as the new CEO! He has quit Disney and he is joining TikTok. He is also going to be the COO of the parent company, ByteDance. What I wanted to share with you is a quote, an interesting quote that he has given, which says, “I was happy with my job at Disney… the magnitude of this opportunity was just something I couldn’t pass up”.

Now, you know what is happening with TikTok and all the buzz and the action around it, especially during this COVID season. So if you’re a ministry that has not yet tried out TikTok, or if you are still on the wall, then it is time to check it out.

🗞️ News #5 – Twitter releases ‘Retweets with Comments’ section on iOS

Our final news of this week is from Twitter. Last week, Twitter officially released a new feature in which it lists ‘Retweets with comments’ separately. This is a very interesting, useful feature where now below your tweet, you will see a total retweet count, and then you click on that, you will see a separate space where ‘Retweet with comments’ and ‘Retweet’ without comment, the basic retweet, is listed. This can be really useful because it’s one thing to retweet your tweet, but it’s another thing to retweet and comment about it.

And you as a person who has put out that content would like to know who has commented on it, what have they commented, and you might want to engage with them because they are the people who are really talking about your content. So this might be a very useful feature and I highly recommend you check it out if you use Twitter.

That’s all we have for you this week. Thank you for spending your time with us.

Have a wonderful week!

Do leave your comments, questions, feedback, and reviews. You can also email me: podcast@natchilazarus.com

We will bring you a fresh set of the latest Social Media news for you next week.

]]>https://www.natchilazarus.com/weekly-digital-social-media-news-22-may-2020-e067/feed/02777The importance of using Social Media for Children’s Ministry.https://www.natchilazarus.com/the-importance-of-using-social-media-for-childrens-ministry/ https://www.natchilazarus.com/the-importance-of-using-social-media-for-childrens-ministry/#respondThu, 21 May 2020 14:32:07 +0000https://www.natchilazarus.com/?p=2774The importance of using Social Media for Children's Ministry. Listen to Natchi Lazarus as he helps you answer this important question.

Hello! Welcome to another edition of #ThoughtFromTheBook. I’m Natchi Lazarus. We are talking about The Connected Church book. In the 8th chapter of The Connected Church book, I talk about using social media for children’s ministry. Today I want to talk about children’s ministry.

And it’s important for you to think about social media for children’s ministry in a very different way because, when it comes to children’s ministry, there are two sets of audience. One is the kids themselves. And then there are the parents. Most kids do not qualify as social media audience. So you don’t create social media content for the kids. You actually create social media content for the parents or the adults who supervise the kids. You have to be sensitive in this area because many times I’ve seen ministries try to think of kids as the audience and try to do everything for the kids, but forget about the adults or the actual consumers who are qualified to consume that content… the ones who are guiding the children. So keep that in mind. It’s a little tricky to do that because you have to keep both people in mind. But when you do that, it can be a very effective platform.

Because kids today, they are very smart, right? When you minister to them on social media, even if it goes through their parents or their adults or their guides, it’s still something that could really impact them in a big way, because they are comfortable with this platform already. They are more comfortable than you, for all you know, they know more about this than you do. So you have to be very conscious of that. But minister to them. I would highly encourage that you make children’s ministry on social media as a big part of your overall ministry approach. Because kids are always of an impressionable age. They capture things. They grow up as digital natives, most of them. Their life is going to be completely consumed by digital and social media when they become adults. So if you as a ministry or a church are able to lay a strong foundation for their spiritual life using social media, as early as possible. Because if you don’t do it, they’re going to go elsewhere looking for information.

This is a fantastic opportunity to bless kids and it’s also a great opportunity to bless parents. Because parents are looking for resources that are available on social media for children, that could help them as parents help their children walk by faith. Just to build the faith-life of their kids. Focus on that, and put a lot of effort on that. I would highly recommend that you put a lot of effort on that because it’s not only good for your ministry because they are the future supporters of your ministry as they grow up, but it’s also for the Kingdom of God. So I highly recommend you focus on that. All right, I’ll see you next week with another thought. Until then, stay connected, stay blessed. God bless you. Bye.

]]>https://www.natchilazarus.com/the-importance-of-using-social-media-for-childrens-ministry/feed/02774[Question] How to add a WhatsApp Button to your Facebook Page?https://www.natchilazarus.com/ask-natchi-20-may-20-e036-add-whatsapp-button-to-facebook-page/ https://www.natchilazarus.com/ask-natchi-20-may-20-e036-add-whatsapp-button-to-facebook-page/#respondWed, 20 May 2020 12:42:02 +0000https://www.natchilazarus.com/?p=2771How to add a WhatsApp Button to your Facebook Page? Listen to Natchi Lazarus as he helps you answer this important question.

Hello and welcome to the #AskNatchi show. I’m Natchi Lazarus. Today we have a question about WhatsApp. The question is specifically about having a WhatsApp button on your Facebook Page. Have you ever seen Facebook Pages where there is a cover image, and then below the cover image, there’s a button? Usually people have, ‘Subscribe’ or something like that… ‘Contact us’. You can have a ‘WhatsApp’ button. People can click on that WhatsApp button and get in touch with you on WhatsApp. That would be useful, right? So the ministry wants to know how to do that.

So here it is: it’s a very simple procedure. First you need to connect your WhatsApp number with your Facebook page. To do that, there are three steps. Simple steps.

Go to your Facebook page settings, and on the left side that are many menus or tabs, look for ‘WhatsApp’ tab. And then click on that.

And the second step, you have to just enter your WhatsApp number and your country code and click on ‘Send code’. Yeah, the button will say ‘Send code’ because Facebook wants to verify your WhatsApp number. So they’ll send you a verification code. Click on the ‘Send code’ button. The moment you do that, you will get a verification code on your WhatsApp number.

Take that code, come back, step number three, put that code in and verify your number. That’s it. You have connected your WhatsApp number with your Facebook page and the moment you do that, you will see an option right below that says, now ‘Have a WhatsApp button on your Facebook page’ and you click that. Boom, you’re all set! That’s it.

How simple was that? Right? So go ahead and do it. Because I love connecting various social media channels. It’s always a good idea to do that because different people use different channels. People who use WhatsApp may never use Facebook, or people who use Facebook may never use WhatsApp. So when people come to either of the channels, if they are linked and they work together nicely, then it helps you not to lose an audience. When people come to your Facebook page, they see a WhatsApp button and they say, “Oh, I use WhatsApp a lot…” which a lot of people do, right? Millions of people around the world use WhatsApp, so they click on the button and they connect with you.

There you go. I hope that was useful. If you have any questions, do send it to me. I’ll be happy to answer your digital and social media questions. I’ll see you next week with another answer to another question. Until then, you stay connected, stay blessed and stay safe. Take care. God bless. Bye.

Hello! Welcome to this week’s edition of The Connected Church News, where we bring you the Top 5 Digital and Social Media News each week for Leaders of Nonprofits, Churches, Ministries and Faith-driven Entrepreneurs.

We know you are busy. And we know that most of you don’t have the time to search the big world wide web for the current news that is relevant to you.

That is why each week we bring you the Top 5 Digital and Social Media News that you need to know for this week and present it to you in a short video format.

This week we look at news items related to Instagram, YouTube, Google, Twitter and social media examiner.

📰 Top 5 Digital & Social Media News

Our first big news of this week is about the release of 2020 social media industry report by Social Media Examiner. Every year, Mike Stelzner, the CEO of Social Media Examiner releases this report. And this is the 12th annual edition. This is personally one of my favorite social media industry reports simply because of the wide range of topics it covers. And most importantly because this has inputs based on marketers who are actually practicing in the industry. That’s what makes this report more valuable. And I think I have a copy of all the years reports!

This is something that I highly recommend that you as a leader of nonprofit church or a ministry download and have a look. Because this not only talks about trends, but it also talks about how people are using various social media channels, how advertising is working, how technologies like chat bot and TikTok are performing, what is coming, it kind of indicates the future trend of social media. So I highly recommend you check it out. I will link to the download page in the show notes. You can visit that page and download a copy of the report for yourself.

Our next news is about new features on Instagram. Earlier this week, Instagram released a set of features among which the highlight is your ability to determine who can tag you on their Instagram posts. Have you ever had this experience of people tagging you in random posts just to get your attention? Or maybe spam? Now you can avoid that. Instagram gives you three options.

One is you can allow tags from ‘Everyone’, or you can say ‘Only people I follow’. People you follow can tag you or you can say ‘No one’ can tag you. So these are in line with what has been happening on WhatsApp and in other Facebook assets. So that’s good. The other two features are also interesting. You have the ability to highlight a comment among all the comments you’ve received. You can pick one and highlight it. You can also bulk delete comments. These are the features that have been released by Instagram. Looks like a set of useful features. So do check it out.

🗞️ News #3 – Twitter tests threaded replies: now with a ‘line’ to show hierarchy of replies

Our next news is from Twitter. Last week, Twitter made an announcement about it’s ‘Threaded Replies’ and how they are testing a new layout. They have been testing threaded replies and threaded conversations for quite some time now. And this recent announcement comes with a major visual move where Twitter is adding a ‘Line’, a visual line to indicate how the replies are structured.

The announcement says “Some of you in iOS and web will see a new layout for replies with lines and indentations that make it clear who is talking to whom and to fit more of the conversation in one view”. So basically the lines will indicate to you who has replied to who, whether it’s a reply to the main tweet or it is a reply to one of the replies… existing replies. So very interesting move from Twitter. Wonder how people will receive it and how it will take off with Twitter users.

Our next big news of this week is from YouTube. Last week YouTube released an article talking about the new tools that they have released for advertisers, but specific to ‘Television’ screens and content that is consumed on television screens. So I wanted to bring this to your notice because this indicates a big trend.

The article talks about how people spend more time at home because of COVID and the lockdown, and as they spend time at home they’re consuming more and more content on their bigger television screens. There is one statistic that says “ComScore report highlights that over 70 million US households are now streaming content on their connected television screens“ and YouTube occupies the biggest share of that. And there are many other interesting statistics.

I highly recommend you check it out. And I also want you to think about how your content as a nonprofit, church or ministry is fine tuned for television viewing. Because more people are viewing it on bigger screens. Is your content optimized for that? Do you have a strategy to reach people on television? Are you advertising using television as a medium? Because this article talks about tools that YouTube provides to facilitate that. So do check it out.

Our final user this week is from Google. Earlier this week, Google made an announcement about a new feature called ‘Support Links’, which are made available to organizations. Organizations can use this link to communicate to their customers how they can support their business or their organization by making a donation or by making a gift card available and so on. And Google is not the only one doing this during this time of COVID where businesses and organization need support.

Even organizations like Facebook and Instagram have features that are trying to help small businesses and organization raise funds, raise donations, etc. So here is the interesting thing I want you to note as a leader of a nonprofit or a ministry: social media is again, starting to think about connecting people with organizations! With paid advertising and organic going away and all that, it was more about people, you know, even some time ago, Mark Zuckerberg came back and said, “It’s about the people“ and it’s not much about the organization. But what is interesting is may be now they’re starting to think, ‘no, it’s not just about the people. You also have to take care of the organizations’. So that trend is kind of very interesting and something for you to note and see if this could benefit your nonprofit or ministry in any way.

That’s all we have for you this week. Thank you for spending your time with us.

Have a wonderful week!

Do leave your comments, questions, feedback, and reviews. You can also email me: podcast@natchilazarus.com

We will bring you a fresh set of the latest Social Media news for you next week.

]]>https://www.natchilazarus.com/weekly-digital-social-media-news-15-may-2020-e066/feed/02760[New] How to Save your Instagram LIVE video to IGTV: A step-by-step Tutorialhttps://www.natchilazarus.com/save-instagram-live-to-igtv/ https://www.natchilazarus.com/save-instagram-live-to-igtv/#respondFri, 15 May 2020 06:14:53 +0000https://www.natchilazarus.com/?p=2739In this LIVE Step-by-Step Tutorial, Natchi Lazarus shows you how to share your Instagram LIVE video to IGTV.

]]>Today, Adam Mosseri from Instagram announced (in his Stories) that you can now save your Instagram LIVE videos to IGTV!

This is a big news!

Especially considering the time-saved in downloading you LIVE sessions and then uploading it to IGTV.

As an explorer in the social media space (may be I should call myself an astronaut, since most of the time I am floating around without much control, pulled in all directions), I jumped on the opportunity and did a LIVE TUTORIAL. Here it is, check it out.

How to Save your Instagram LIVE video to IGTV

Step 1: Plan your content

Needless to say, before you go live, think about what you are going to deliver in your live stream.

Ask key questions like:

Am I doing this alone? Or with another person? If so, have they been invited?

How am I going to add value to my audience?

Do I have visual assets that I am going to use? (Yes, you can add images into your stream picture-in-picture)

Step 2: Prepare your Thumnail

This a step that is now important to think through ahead of time because of the new workflow. You don’t have the luxury of working on the thumbnail later (as you used to earlier, if you have been downloading and repurposing your live video).

Thumbnail specs:

A vertical 9:16 Image with your title

Ninja Tip: Try to keep your title aligned at the center of your image, without occupying more than 30 to 40% of the image. The reason is, when you ‘add preview’ this portion will show up in your Instagram news feed.

See my sample thumbnail below, you will see how I have added the content in the middle of the image and lowered it a bit, so that it appears nicely in the Instagram newsfeed, square preview.

Of course, if you are ok with selecting an image from the video, you can ignore this step.

Step 3: Go Live

Once you have all this, push the LIVE button and do it!

Step 4: Select the Share to IGTV option

Right after your end your live stream, you will see the ‘Share to IGTV’ option listed. Select that

Step 5: Select a thumbnail

Now you will use the thumbnail that we prepared and upload it. Or select one from the video footage.

Step 6: Title, Description and Preview

In this final step, there are 4 steps – Give it a Title, Description, Add it to a Series (like a YouTube Playlist) and the importantly add a ‘Preview’ so that it appears in your Instagram Feed!

Congratulations! You have successfully saved your Live Feed to your IGTV without much work.

Bonus Tip

One Additional Step – Add your preview to Instagram Story

To make use of Instagram’s full capacity, I would also recommend clicking the SHARE icon in your IGTV Preview and sharing it on your Stories. Stories always have more reach than the feed (atleast as of now) so it will help you spread the word.

Hope that helps. Let me know if I can answer any questions or thoughts you might have (leave your comments).